


I Don’t Care… Actually I Do.

by Badassium1970



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Angst, Fluff, M/M, Pokemon Art Academy, Protective Dan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-09
Updated: 2016-08-09
Packaged: 2018-08-07 16:49:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7722313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Badassium1970/pseuds/Badassium1970
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ross seems really disinterested during recording which upsets Barry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Don’t Care… Actually I Do.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic could have also been called I CAN’T THINK OF A F’IN TITLE! But anyway, quick disclaimer than I by no means think that this is what actually happening during the episode, I am just complete trash for angst.

Barry loved recording Pokémon Art Academy. Not only were the episodes relaxing but he liked Ross teaching him how to draw. He was definitely getting better and the episodes where he drew were about as long as Ross’s got. The fact that he got to spend so much time with his friend was also great, and there was a different atmosphere to usual episodes.

Today though Ross seemed to get disinterested really quickly. They both got really tired quite quickly this session but Ross just didn’t seem into it after a while.

Things went well to start with, beginning with skeleton jokes that were just plain awful and some didn’t even make sense. Ross then started reading the shows sub redit which was quite funny although it dated the episode, not that they really cared anymore, they’d explained what was happening with the episodes.

After a while Ross got pretty antsy, annoyed at the game for forcing steps that weren’t necessary or were just plain stupid. He also didn’t understand what Barry was doing and kept having to bite his tongue to avoid saying anything.

Not long after getting slightly irritated with the game, and the fact that he had to sit doing next to nothing, Ross began scrolling through his phone which upset Barry a bit as it seemed that Ross didn’t care. Barry also felt bad that the viewers wouldn’t get good commentary with Ross like this and tried to get him to engage.

Ross’s comments on his art was upsetting Barry a bit. He was trying so hard and knew Ross was actually trying to help but it still hurt.

“This is dumb!” Ross exclaimed, still frustrated at the game. He was tired and getting bored, his could feel his ability to concentrate slip away and just wanted to be done already but the games drawing tools were stupid and they weren’t given all of them making it harder. As an artist it was painful.

“Shut up!” Barry yelled, trying to keep a light tone to his voice. Honestly he was unsure as to whether Ross was insulting the game or his art, but it soon became clear that it was the game pissing him off and Barry relaxed a little, but not for long.

“AHHHH!” Ross exclaimed as he finished his recent tangent.

“How you doing there?” Barry felt bad, knowing he was taking a long time, but Ross normally did so he didn’t see the big deal.

“I don’t care, I don’t care, have you ever just been at a point where you just don’t care and you just don’t want to get up from the couch?”

A somewhat interesting conversation came out of that. Barry was still upset about Ross’s behaviour. Sure Barry felt the same way when Ross took hours to draw but he was never so vocal and tried to remain happy and energetic. It was a shame that Ross couldn’t seem to do the same.

There was a little bit of art criticism from Ross but soon he became more positive and energetic, though that didn’t last long.

Barry was asking advice for the shadow of the hair. He was pretty proud of his drawing so far, though he didn’t enjoy using the pastel tool as it left areas blank.

“That’s great. Why not? I don’t care.” Ross sounded bored, his voice completely monotone which was really irritating Barry. Why couldn’t Ross just show a bit of enthusiasm?  
He decided to ignore it and continue asking for help, trying to find out how light works. His drawing was going pretty good and he was happy with it and enjoying himself, so much so that he started messing around but stopped when Ross seemed less than impressed with him.

The commentary was still calm and got a bit more fun, though it still came across that Ross didn’t really care. Barry understood. He and Ross were different in many ways. Barry could happily watch Ross draw and do nothing for an hour or so whereas Ross liked to be doing something and got bored and fidgety quickly when he wasn’t doing something. It still sucked but Barry could deal with it, knowing Ross meant it when he said he didn’t mean it.

They got on to taking about vegetables of all things and that’s when Barry got really upset, not that he showed it. In the middle of talking their conversation about Brussels sprouts Barry mumbled about how he lied Ross. He didn’t know why he said it, probably just because he was sleep. Ross completely blanked him and started talking about Holly. Barry knew he shouldn’t have been as upset as he was but he blamed it on lack of sleep and being in the hot recording room for so long.

Ross went on about how good Holly’s cooking was, obviously excited and happy as his was moving his legs and feet a lot, which Barry had to put a stop to as his drawing was already taking a long time and he didn’t want to have to make it take any more time that it needed to.

“Her Brussels sprouts are the best,” Ross continued, his voice in a dreamy state.

“I’m happy for you.” Barry was, he was happy that Ross had someone who he loved so much and who loved him back but it was a little upsetting that he wouldn’t pay attention to Barry or act that enthusiastically towards him.

Barry tried to keep his energy up but he couldn’t keep a little sadness out of his voice, he just hoped no one noticed.

The atmosphere became lighter for a while, though Barry couldn’t help but feel like Ross didn’t want to be around him when he bought up other people. He didn’t feel jealous per say, just a little distressed. Again he blamed that on tiredness and how hot the room was.

Barry started adding shade to the fart cloud, but Ross said it didn’t need it and looked good without it. Whether that was true to not, Barry wasn’t sure.

“Are you saying that just because you’re tired and want to go home?”

“No… yeah…”

They laughed a little, but Barry still felt uncomfortable and wanted to hurry up with his drawing, but at the same time he wanted his drawing to be good so he didn’t increase his speed that much. Lazy conversation ensued until Ross started rushing Barry a little which lead to talking about travelling.

“I wanna go on a Europe trip,” Ross commented sleepily.

“Dude that’d be sweet,” Barry smiled, thinking about how cool that would be. He could picture Ross being one of those people who bought stupid tourist shit like t-shirts and wearing them just to embarrass his friends.

“You’re not invited.” Ross’s voice was so blunt and Barry’s grin instantly vanished.

“I wanna go with Holly, and I wanna go to Germany.”

“Oh, well I guess you would want to go with your wife.” Barry couldn’t help but feel hurt and Ross didn’t even notice, he just continued talking and Barry could feel his chest getting tighter. He didn’t understand why it hurt so much.

“I don’t know how I feel about those dots,” Barry stated, removing the white highlights from his drawing even though Ross said to keep them.

“Okay, whatever. I don’t know how I feel about you.” Ross didn’t seem to realise what he said was kind of hurtful, or at least the deadpan tone made what he said hurtful.

“That’s pretty mean,” Barry remarked, putting on a bit of a voice to hide that he actually felt that way. Ross gave a joke apology, blissfully unaware of how Barry was feeling.

Ross was pretty happy with the new tool they were given, the smudge stick, which gave a nicer atmosphere, but again that only lasted for so long.

“I’m gonna call my wife,” Ross announced suddenly and Barry was a little confused.

“You’re gonna call her on the show?” This kind of thing didn’t happen often, in fact if someone was called on the show or a phone call was taken it was normally a joke to annoy the person being called. Barry tried not to let it bother him and tried not to feel any joy when Holly didn’t pick up.

They joked a bit about Holly, and Ross informed Barry that she was going to pick him up after they were done. Barry offered to do it instead but was promptly denied.

Like Ross had predicted, Holly called him back.

“Are you almost done?”

“Yeah I think so.”

Barry knew that Ross just wanted to know if he should get Holly to come pick him up soon, and he shouldn’t have let the question bother him, but it did, and he hated it.

The call with Holly was pleasant, and Barry couldn’t help but feel a little happier. There was something about Holly that was just so sweet that he couldn’t let himself be annoyed or upset when she spoke. Barry felt some pride when both Ross and Holly complimented his work, even though Holly couldn’t even see what he was drawing but she was nice about the idea.

“That’s my wife everybody.”

“Holly’s pretty cu-ool” Barry stopped himself from calling her cute. Sure he thought that, hell most people did, but for some reason he felt strange saying that now.

The ending of the episode went a lot better, Barry couldn’t help but get a little jealous, thinking that Holly was probably the reason for Ross’s change in attitude.

“Beautiful. You nailed it.”

Barry felt that sense of pride again when Ross complimented his work and it made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside. He would have liked for Ross to have a bit more emotion in his voice but he couldn’t have everything.

They shut off the equipment and stretched a bit, Ross’s back clicked and he whined about how much it hurt. Barry also felt pretty stiff, and his legs felt weak as he made his way into the main area of the Grumps space. Dan was waiting, Barry had forgotten that Dan was his ride. He didn’t seem annoyed, then again Dan didn’t tend to get mad, plus he was good at keeping himself busy.

Barry had expected Ross to want to talk a bit after the session. Sure they had just been talking for almost an hour but it wasn’t like that had ever stopped them before, plus Ross had promised to tell him something Chris had joked about, but Ross was just waiting at the door for Holly, not even making eye contact with Barry. Barry would have left but Dan was writing something in his notebook and Barry didn’t want to bother him.

When Holly arrived she said hi to everyone before Ross started talking to her, ignoring everyone else. They didn’t look like they were going to be leaving anytime soon, which was weird to Barry since all Ross wanted to do earlier was go home.

“I guess he really did just want to get away from me,” Barry thought, his eyes stinging but he refused to let his upset show.

Dan could tell something was wrong, and quickly excused himself and Barry. The song his was working on could wait, Barry was more important.

The ride home was pretty quiet, Barry said he didn’t really feel like talking after doing so for almost an hour which Dan knew was just an excuse and Barry had other reasons for not wanting to talk but he respected Barry’s wishes. He told Barry a bit about the song he was working on but soon a less than comfortable silence commenced. Dan wanted to ask Barry what was going on, what Ross had done, or what he had done, but he figured it was best to give Barry a bit of time to process what was going on.

When they got settled at home was when Dan finally asked, unable to wait any longer. Seeing Barry upset was one of the worst things, well seeing anyone upset as terrible but it was somehow worse when it was Barry.

“So what happened today? You seem off.”

Barry sighed. He was trying to act as normal as possible but it obviously wasn’t working.

“I guess the session just didn’t go as well as I hoped. Ross seemed really uninterested and didn’t want to be there.” Barry went through all the things that bothered him.

“I just… I don’t know why it bothers me so much, I’m sure it doesn’t mean anything but he seemed to… he seemed to not want to be around me.” Barry couldn’t keep himself from crying. It hurt a lot to think that Ross didn’t really like being around him anymore or at least didn’t want to be around him that long.

Dan hugged Barry and dried his tears. He restrained his anger towards Ross, he knew he would be in tomorrow as that was his normal recording day and Dan would talk to him then. He convinced Barry to take the next day off and spend some time to himself to de-stress which after a little bit of arguing Barry agreed to. Barry was glad that he had Dan as a friend, he was always there for him.

The next day Dan went into the office, almost immediately going to Ross’s desk. He had spent all night thinking about how upset Barry was, he had cried and it was because of Ross. Dan was normally good at controlling what little anger he had, but he just couldn’t this time.

“Ross what the fuck did you do yesterday?”

Ross had never seen Dan this angry, not even after playing his Mario Maker levels. It was terrifying.

“I… I didn’t do anything!” Ross exclaimed, his voice full of fear. Dan couldn’t deal with people being ignorant, Ross should have known he was hurting Barry.

“Then why the fuck did Barry start crying yesterday when talking about you?” Dan had a growl to his voice and Ross actually whimpered in fear.

“I… I…” Ross tried to say he didn’t know but he did. He knew how he had acted towards Barry the day before but he never meant to hurt his friend.

“Fuck… I didn’t mean to hurt him, I’m just going through some things and I realised something and needed to tell Holly.”

“I’m not the one who you need to explain this to. Barry’s at home, if you’re just going to hurt him more then don’t go.” Dan placed his house keys on Ross’s desk before leaving still seething with anger.

Ross didn’t know if he was going to hurt Barry more, but he didn’t intend to and he didn’t want Barry to think about him in a bad light. He left a note explaining that something came up and he would come in another day to make up for it. Dan smiled as Ross left, though he was still worried.

Barry was curled up on the sofa when Ross arrived, apologising profusely before Barry had the chance to even say hello or ask what was going on. It was clear that Dan had spoken to Ross. Barry should have expected that.

“Ross, it’s okay. I know it’s hard to concentrate for so long. Don’t worry about it.”

“I know you think things are worse than that and I want to explain myself. Um… I probably should have spoken to Holly beforehand but um… Okay so me and Holly have agreed recently to have a somewhat open relationship. Um we both… well okay Holly told me she kind of had a thing for you and thought I did. I wasn’t really sure how I felt but when we were doing that session I kind of realised and felt nervous and also was desperate to tell Holly so we could ask you…” Ross saw that Barry seemed pretty shocked and overwhelmed with the information and stopped rambling.

Barry could barely breath, all of the things he was feeling yesterday, being so upset about Ross’s attitude, feeling weird about calling Holly cute, made sense.

“It’s fine if you don’t feel the same way or need some time to think about it. I just didn’t want you to have the wrong idea.” Ross felt bad for springing this on him. Maybe he should have left it a little while.

“I… I feel the same way. It’s just… I dunno, I never thought about my feelings before but everything makes sense and I don’t know… It’s nice but overwhelming.”

Ross nodded, he had felt the same way and now Barry understood why he was acting the way he did.

They spent some time together before Ross left to go back to work. Barry needed some time to think about things anyway. He knew how he felt but still wanted to think things through and make sure that he definitely felt that way.

After talking to Holly and experimenting they all knew how they felt and a relationship was formed. They had kept things secret, though Dan had his suspicions. When everything was worked out they told the other Grumps, who were all supportive. Dan made Ross promise not to hurt Barry and Ross agreed, he never wanted to deal with livid Dan ever again. Things settled down again and returned back to normal, apart from the new relationship between the three. Ross still acted a bit strange during long recording, but this time it was because he wanted to tell Barry how much he loved him, wanted to give him kisses and cuddles. Barry could deal with that kind of weirdness.


End file.
